Most Unhappy Crew is on Norwegian...

Jewel.

 

I just returned from a 7-night Mexican Riviera cruise (April 16-23), and aside from a couple of Vacation Hero exceptions, most of the crew were very cold, unsmiling but very efficient. There were very few hellos or thank yous, or how was your days, and very much avoidance of eye-contact and curt exchanges. This extended from my cabin steward to bar servers, MDR hostesses, most wait staff, and most of the shore excursion team.

 

I comment because this was my 15th NCL cruise, and I was really surprised and bummed out by how generally unfriendly the crew was, especially in contrast with all of my previous NCL cruises. Since I mostly sail solo, I have always enjoyed feeling like I was never alone on NCL because its crews have always been so friendly and outgoing, but not this cruise. I hope this was just a one-of-a-kind exception and not a trend.

 

I still had a very nice time. Excellent production shows; the spa was super and not crowded at all; great food; fastest-ever embarkation and disembarkation; no wait for anything ever except in the Sky High Bar, so that efficiency did have its positives. But if this was my first NCL cruise, I don't know if I would have booked another.

 

Is it just Jewel? Was it just that cruise? Are there too many staff cutbacks and remaining staff are being asked to do too much? What do you think?

The reason could be any of those you mentioned. Did you bring this up with a staff member when you were aboard? I don't recall seeing too many unhappy crew, all on the same cruise before. Just 1 or 2 on occasion.

I was on the Jewel several months ago. I only noticed our cabin steward was worn out, but still friendly. All other staff were friendly and seemed happy. It could have been a rough Spring break Riviera season. It did seem there were less staff and a lot in training.

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Is it just Jewel? Was it just that cruise? Are there too many staff cutbacks and remaining staff are being asked to do too much? What do you think?

 

I hope you got something that was a one-off. We have 70 days booked on the Jewel later this year and at the start of 2018. Help!!

 

We did have 40 brilliant days on the Star at the end of 2016 and really enjoyed that cruise; nothing like you found that there.

On my 2/25 Epic cruise crew was awesome but spa was super-crowded. So, I think it varies on what is norm.

 

I once sailed on a TA that was right after Spring break and yes, the crew was worn out.

 

I cruised Jewel 4/4/15 and it was incredible. Lots of smiles, hellos snd TYs. So, sorry it was not same for you.

 

Don't give up on NCL yet.

 

 

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Jewel.

 

I just returned from a 7-night Mexican Riviera cruise (April 16-23), and aside from a couple of Vacation Hero exceptions, most of the crew were very cold, unsmiling but very efficient. There were very few hellos or thank yous, or how was your days, and very much avoidance of eye-contact and curt exchanges. This extended from my cabin steward to bar servers, MDR hostesses, most wait staff, and most of the shore excursion team.

 

I comment because this was my 15th NCL cruise, and I was really surprised and bummed out by how generally unfriendly the crew was, especially in contrast with all of my previous NCL cruises. Since I mostly sail solo, I have always enjoyed feeling like I was never alone on NCL because its crews have always been so friendly and outgoing, but not this cruise. I hope this was just a one-of-a-kind exception and not a trend.

 

I still had a very nice time. Excellent production shows; the spa was super and not crowded at all; great food; fastest-ever embarkation and disembarkation; no wait for anything ever except in the Sky High Bar, so that efficiency did have its positives. But if this was my first NCL cruise, I don't know if I would have booked another.

 

Is it just Jewel? Was it just that cruise? Are there too many staff cutbacks and remaining staff are being asked to do too much? What do you think?

I have only experienced a couple NCL cruises that come close to what you are saying, one happened to be the Jewel to Mexico a few years ago. It may have to do with the demographic breakdown of some Mexican Riv cruisers or maybe the crew is still exhausted from handling all the spring breakers. Our last 2 cruises, the last one on the BA 2 weeks ago we couldn't have had better crew members from the wait staff, to the bar tenders to our cabin steward. We actually tipped one of the waiters in the MDR which we have never done before. The service was fantastic and he was the best.

That sucks. We had that happen on our very first NCL cruise on the Spirit, but never since. There is no sense guessing at reasons for it, when no one really knows.

I am sure the cheapskates who repeatedly remove DSC at guest service and stiff the crew have something to do this this.

I heard the same exact comment from my co-worker about a year ago who sailed on the Getaway. She put it as "an unhappy ship". To me, this stems from how they are trained to "present themselves and interact with the passengers and when around the passengers, etc." If no one tells them to do that, then they won't.

On the other hand, Washy Washy Happy Happy girls are always super cheerful and smiling.

Anyone who gets this sort of problem on board tell the Senior Staff member who you next come across; how else will they know it is happening? As you are CC members and will have had the list of officers with phone numbers use it!! BUT and a very big BUT also phone when you have something good to say; it works wonders.

We were on the Jewel the week before you. Our cabin steward looked like she was ready to fall over most of the time. I took the thime to chat and she kept saying how much work there was.

 

That being said, our cruise had 2800 passengers (ship capacity is 2300 double occupancy). So there were a lot of extra people in the 3rd and 4th bunks.

 

We had a great waiter in Cagneys who waited on us over the past three years on the Jewel. Even though he wasn't serving us, he went to get our name from the hostess and came to our table to say "hi". He left the cruise on day 6 to join the Joy leaving Cagneys short handed.

I think you are trying to add 2+2 and coming up with 7.5

I heard the same exact comment from my co-worker about a year ago who sailed on the Getaway. She put it as "an unhappy ship". To me, this stems from how they are trained to "present themselves and interact with the passengers and when around the passengers, etc." If no one tells them to do that, then they won't.

It's funny you say that, because the only time I was ever called by name, which was only ever done by the hostess in Tsar' s Palace, it was Mr. Hunter every single time. Not Sir John or any of the other variations of my name I have become used to over the years. That got me thinking that maybe new crew are being trained to be more reserved.

 

The other reason I thought everyone might just be exhausted is because some of my fellow passengers were down right preposterous with their frequent demands and expectations. And I sympathize with the crew in that respect. It just made for a lonely cruise.

 

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It seems a lot of the crew is being trained for the Joy. Do the Chinese expect a different type of service? More reserved and formal perhaps?

OP, so sorry that you felt that the staff on your cruise was not what you thought it would be. There is no bad intent here to you at all and what you experienced. :)

 

I have a couple of thoughts after having been on over 30 cruises and several different cruise lines.

I have also traveled solo and with friends and family.

 

IMHO, I do not need the staff to be overly friendly or become my friend all of the time, in fact I do not really like the 'in your face greetings etc.'.I do not expect that anywhere when there is customer service. Can you imagine being expected to be like that all of the time at work? I only expect pleasant.

 

These are adults working very hard and, again, IMHO, should not need to be 100% overly friendly to a customer. Though I don't like the 'sucking up' factor either. Everyone has days at work that are not perfect and therefore we do the best we can to be pleasant. I am not sure why it is important to some people to have their room steward or other staff be their friend.

 

I have always received excellent service on cruise ships - I cannot think of one time that it wasn't. Was it perfect, no, but I believe of the staff are working very hard are always pleasant.

 

If the 'unfriendly' interaction is 'reported' to the management, what would be said - this is subjective and unfortunately the staff would suffer. I am not dismissing rude behavior by a staff, IMHO that should be reported

 

That said, I have noticed on recent NCL cruises that the service is slow due to having not enough staff; I would be unhappy to if I was expected to do the work of more than 1 person.

 

How could I report to NCL that they did not have enough staff working without making the staff look bad - when short staffed it is never the staff's fault........:(

 

JMHO -

Safe cruising all!

Maybe there was something going on that week behind the scenes that was upsetting or stressing out the crew. Maybe they got reprimanded for spending too much time being social and not enough time cleaning. Perhaps their crew numbers were tightened up to save money, leaving more work for each person, and they were overworked and adjusting. If the entire crew was unhappy then there was probably an unfortunate reason for it, rather than them just being nasty people, which was probably not the case since it would be rare to have a thousand or more people in a collectively bad mood at the exact same time by pure coincidence.

 

 

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How could I report to NCL that they did not have enough staff working without making the staff look bad - when short staffed it is never the staff's fault........:(

 

You post reads as if you have sufficient a grasp of the English language to be able to do that. Accentuate the positive while still delivering the negative.

Jewel.

 

I just returned from a 7-night Mexican Riviera cruise (April 16-23), and aside from a couple of Vacation Hero exceptions, most of the crew were very cold, unsmiling but very efficient.

 

Yikes! We board the Jewel on Sunday for a Pacific Coastal cruise; I'll let you know how we do on it. We shared a coastal cruise on the Sun a few years back from Vancouver to LA and had very similar impressions (except I thought Cagney's was horrible and not worth the then-$25 cover charge), but you had a great meal there the night before.

That sucks. We had that happen on our very first NCL cruise on the Spirit, but never since. There is no sense guessing at reasons for it, when no one really knows.

you are right, no sense guessing: odd thing, the other cruise where we had less the outstanding service was the Spirit.

We were on the Jewel in March and only one crew member stood out as grumpy. He was a room steward (not ours). Everyone else was very pleasant. BTW- I don't think it is ever appropriate to complain about your job to a passenger. Not at sea and not on land.

You post reads as if you have sufficient a grasp of the English language to be able to do that. Accentuate the positive while still delivering the negative.

 

Thank you for your suggestion but it would send a mixed message and a complaint could be dismissed.

 

If you have a complaint but follow it up with many positives it weakens the complaint which companies would focus on and believe things are not that bad; therefore the complaints would have no credibility. This happens often with big American corporations.

 

Thank you also for the compliment on my grasp of the English language. :cool:

 

Safe sailing all!

Jewel.

 

I just returned from a 7-night Mexican Riviera cruise (April 16-23), and aside from a couple of Vacation Hero exceptions, most of the crew were very cold, unsmiling but very efficient. There were very few hellos or thank yous, or how was your days, and very much avoidance of eye-contact and curt exchanges. This extended from my cabin steward to bar servers, MDR hostesses, most wait staff, and most of the shore excursion team.

 

I comment because this was my 15th NCL cruise, and I was really surprised and bummed out by how generally unfriendly the crew was, especially in contrast with all of my previous NCL cruises. Since I mostly sail solo, I have always enjoyed feeling like I was never alone on NCL because its crews have always been so friendly and outgoing, but not this cruise. I hope this was just a one-of-a-kind exception and not a trend.

 

I still had a very nice time. Excellent production shows; the spa was super and not crowded at all; great food; fastest-ever embarkation and disembarkation; no wait for anything ever except in the Sky High Bar, so that efficiency did have its positives. But if this was my first NCL cruise, I don't know if I would have booked another.

 

Is it just Jewel? Was it just that cruise? Are there too many staff cutbacks and remaining staff are being asked to do too much? What do you think?

 

 

I think the Hotel Director set's the mood.

 

It was very noticable morale decline in the crew after Sir Calvin Lodge left Dawn. :(

 

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It seems a lot of the crew is being trained for the Joy. Do the Chinese expect a different type of service? More reserved and formal perhaps?

I don't know about that, but the issue would be that crew members that leave to work on the Joy are no longer working on the other ships. Does anyone know how many are being taken from the rest of the fleet? Even if it's like only 1 out of 20, I think this could have a noticeable effect on morale, team spirit, productivity, etc. Even if they are replaced one for one by new recruits (which I kind of doubt), they are not interchangeable spare parts.

Jewel.

Is it just Jewel? Was it just that cruise? Are there too many staff cutbacks and remaining staff are being asked to do too much? What do you think?

 

I have been on the Jewel twice and have found that there are a lot of unhappy crew members on her. I do not know why, but I'm not sure I will sail on her again for that reason. I cruised on RCCL last year and even though I did find the crew to be happier, there were more negatives for me and have decided I will stick with NCL. I just doubt I will go on the Jewel again, which sucks because I live closer to the West Coast.